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Yes, and in this case the economic aspect of the issues also revolved around slavery.
No one says that the Union forces went after the Confederates just because they were such good little saints and they had to punish those evil slave owners. But it still doesn't deny the fact that the Confederate society was economically founded on slavery and white supremacy, and it isn't something to be celebrated.
My point is this, the vast majority of the ACTUAL people who fought in the Civil War, didn't actually care about slavery at all. That isn't just my opinion, that is what Abraham Lincoln himself said.
Do you really think Robert E. Lee was fighting for slavery? Do you think Stonewall Jackson was fighting for slavery?
Whether or not the businessmen who pull the strings of Democracy are pushing a fight for the sake of their wallet, by manipulating the people through states' rights, or the Constitution, or trying to make people terrified of black people to justify slavery, is somewhat irrelevant. Because neither side was actually interested in abolishing slavery. Had the war ended within the first two years, slavery wouldn't have been abolished at all.
With that said, if we examine the states' rights and Constitutional arguments. The truth is, the Constitution was DEFINITELY on the side of the south. Which is actually an indictment of the founding fathers themselves, and our Constitution. And that includes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and everyone else who had supported slavery in some fashion, and the decentralization of power(IE states' rights).
So, if the South had the Constitution on its side, and the North wasn't fighting to abolish slavery. Then logic itself would dictate that the North was in the wrong. And by Lincoln choosing to call an Army to invade the Confederacy, he pushed four more states into the arms of the Confederacy, including Virginia. And made a bad situation far worse.
But all of this leaves us with a problem. The people who pushed for war, were doing so to protect their property and profits(both North and South). But the people who fought the war, thought they were fighting for the Constitution, or for states' rights, or independence from a corrupt central government, or for the preservation of the union, or in defense of the union. And whether that was the point of the war or not, it was a valid argument.
All of this leaves us with the dilemma in regards to what the Confederacy is. To some, the confederacy is states' rights, independence, decentralization, and freedom. While to others, its slavery, oppression, and treason.
And the truth is, it is all of these things, and none of these things.
And this same logic can be applied to the United States flag as well. And for that matter, that logic is being applied to the US flag. Because the US flag can definitely represent slavery, racism, genocide, oppression, and imperialism. Or it can represent freedom and independence. Don't get so wrapped up in one that you can't see the other. The world isn't that simple.
I find this type of thinking interesting. Like many people who can trace their family history to the Civil War and before, I have ancestors who fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. I feel no compunction whatsoever to hold "close to my heart" the symbol of my southern ancestor's treasonous actions. They were slaveholders! (Ben Affleck and I have a lot in common, although I make no effort to hide it.). There is nothing honorable in that. Nothing at all. No way would I EVER own or display the Confederate flag.
"No way would I EVER own or display the Confederate flag."
And herein is the problem.
Freedom of Speech ALLOWS us to voice and act on what we want. NOT subjected to others who think otherwise.
Just because YOU are against it does NOT mean the rest of us have to be.
Some don't like it, based by many responses on here on various threads due to alack of knowledge, and that is OK EXCEPT, BECAUSE THEY DON'T IKE THEY WANT EVERYONE ELSE TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH THEM.
We see it displayed over and over, "I don't like it, therefore it MUST be banned"
Sorry, here in America we are ALL free to say and express what WE want.
Just a coincidence or related the removal of the confederate flag?
Quote:
Jeanette Dudley, the associate pastor of God's Power Church of Christ
in Macon, Georgia, got a call a little after 5 a.m. on Wednesday, she told a local TV news station. Her tiny church of about a dozen members had been burned, probably beyond repair. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco got called in, which has been the standard
procedure for church fires since the late 1960s. Investigators say they’ve ruled
out possible causes like an electrical malfunction; most likely, this was
arson.
The very same night, many miles away in North Carolina, another church
burned: Briar Creek Road Baptist Church, which was set on fire some time
around 1 a.m. Investigators have ruled it an act of arson, the AP reports; according to The Charlotte Observer, they haven’t yet determined whether it might be a hate crime
There is not a single line in the Constitution that allows secession from the union. We are a perpetual indissoluble union.
maybe you didn't read the 10th amendment!
Quote:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people
Nowhere in the constitution prohibits the states or the people from secession or to renounce your U.S. Citizenship.
The Founding Fathers left the blue print for the people to secede if they felt that their government didn't represent them or became a tyrant. It never gave the ultimate power for the FEDS.
Quote:
We are a perpetual indissoluble union.
I'm sure King George told himself that over and over when dealing with the 13 colonies....how did that worked out?.....lol
There is not a single line in the Constitution that allows secession from the union. We are a perpetual indissoluble union.
Taking your comment to its logical conclusion, there was no provision in British law which allowed a colony to declare itself independent. So, does that mean the founders of the US were in the wrong? Or is it merely a matter of "might makes right" i.e. since the colonists won their war of independence they were in the right, while the confederates were in the wrong because they lost?
Personally, up until recently the "Confederate" flag didn't actually mean a thing to me. However, over the last few days it has come to symbolize a few things:
1. Political correctness taken beyond the bounds of logic or reality.
2. A shining example of how the mainstream media will use any means necessary to provoke civil unrest and racial tension in America.
3. The ease with which a large portion of the American public can be manipulated into believing almost anything as long as it is repeated enough times.
4. The death knell for freedom of speech in this country.
5. The ease with which the American public can be distracted from real issues if the right engaging story is pushed hard enough.
Every single person who actually believes that flying the "Confederate" flag means that one somehow endorses racism because some racists have used that flag as a rallying point is an utter moron. The very same argument could be used to say that because you fly the United States flag you agree with everything that the United States has ever done, such as the wars in the Middle East and Vietnam and the extermination of American Indians. For that matter, considering that slavery was common in the original colonies, flying the United States flag while condemning those who fly the "Confederate" flag would make you a hypocrite, since the United States at one time endorsed slavery and was therefore racist.
It's a flag. It didn't commit any crime, it doesn't have any special powers, and it most assuredly is not responsible for the actions of some drug addicted loser jackwagon who committed a heinous crime on his own initiative.
"No way would I EVER own or display the Confederate flag."
And herein is the problem.
Freedom of Speech ALLOWS us to voice and act on what we want. NOT subjected to others who think otherwise.
Just because YOU are against it does NOT mean the rest of us have to be.
Some don't like it, based by many responses on here on various threads due to alack of knowledge, and that is OK EXCEPT, BECAUSE THEY DON'T IKE THEY WANT EVERYONE ELSE TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH THEM.
We see it displayed over and over, "I don't like it, therefore it MUST be banned"
Sorry, here in America we are ALL free to say and express what WE want.
There is no problem, because I do not stand in the way of you owning and displaying one. You've jumped to a false conclusion. Read my post again. Nowhere have I advocated for banning the Confederate flag.
this flag symbolizes many things to many people, and while it scares me, it certainly shouldn't be taken away...I'm really sick of people being or trying to be politically correct, this whole thing is really stupid, and enough is enough....period.
My God, people need to start growing a set! Everything offends someone???????
The Founding Fathers left the blue print for the people to secede if they felt that their government didn't represent them or became a tyrant. It never gave the ultimate power for the FEDS.
That my friend is utter nonsense. The blue print that the Founders left was the Constitution of the United States, period.
If one needs to understand the constitutional rationale for the Lincoln's forceful actions to put down the unlawful uprising by the southern states, no needs to look no further than Lincoln first inaugural address.
After swearing to the oath of office required by Article Two, Section One, Clause Eight:
Before one enters on the Execution of one's Office, one shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:— “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Lincoln begins his address by unequivocally stating that he would not interfere with the issue of slavery where it existed, nor would he continence the lack of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act as both were laws enacted in accordance with the Constitution. He then goes on to address the issue of secession as counter to the principle of nations and the Constitution.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.
Lincoln goes on to points out, that even if disunion were possible that:
If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?
But disunion was not put to the nation as a whole for debate and deliberation. Secession was not put before the People of the United States or its elective representatives and as a result as Lincoln points out that;
"It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances."
As a result, Lincoln makes it clear that his choices of action were prescribed by the Constitution itself.
I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. [b]I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself....
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
this flag symbolizes many things to many people, and while it scares me, it certainly shouldn't be taken away...I'm really sick of people being or trying to be politically correct, this whole thing is really stupid, and enough is enough....period.
My God, people need to start growing a set! Everything offends someone???????
Again - exactly who is advocating a government ban?
I strongly suspect that at least some people who display the stars and bars do it precisely because it offends some other people. So what?
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